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OnePlus Just Showed Samsung & Apple How It’s Done

The OnePlus 5 is an exceptional phone, retailed at a fair price – now why can’t Apple and Samsung deliver us something similar?

Look at the specs, the industrial design, the attention to detail… the camera. Stacked up, everything appears to look VERY expensive. Like, iPhone/Galaxy S8 expensive. But it isn’t. The OnePlus costs £450.

Let’s just take that in for a second: a phone, with brilliant specs and a great design, will go on sale on June 27 for £450 – almost half what the new iPhone 8 will cost when it joins the party in September.

So, if you value your money but also like high-end technology, the OnePlus 5 is kind of a no-brainer; it has better specs than the iPhone 7, similar performance attributes to both that phone and the Galaxy S8, great styling, and it costs a lot less.

I know, I know – we say this every year: OnePlus is cheap, so very, very cheap compared to the more traditional players in the space. But this year it is slightly different; OnePlus has sorted out the camera – and that is a big deal.

“We design each of our flagship smartphones with premium quality in mind, both on the inside and outside, and we are happy to continue our long history of working with Qualcomm Technologies by selecting the Snapdragon 835 for its ability to drive a truly premium smartphone experience in the OnePlus 5,” said Kyle Kiang, global head of marketing, OnePlus. “It’s optimized functionality and top-notch performance is a perfect fit for our mantra to never settle for second-best experiences in our products.”

There are other issues to consider, however, when buying a OnePlus handset, chief among them OnePlus’ well documented sub-par customer service. If you can get past this – either through insurance or by picking up a network-branded handset – you’re in for a treat, though.

This, at least, to me, looks to be the phone OnePlus has been trying to make since day one. It appears to have it all: specs, performance, design and, finally, a camera that can compete with Apple and Samsung’s efforts.

Here’s what Qualcomm had to say about the new OnePlus 5:

“We’re pleased that OnePlus has selected the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform to power their upcoming premium flagship smartphone, delivering some of the most advanced and immersive user experiences possible,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, mobile, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“It also enables support for next-generation entertainment experiences and connected cloud services.”